Frost and Lantern
by lanuminga
Summary: New Guardian Jack Frost and the Big Four set out to Poland to solve the mystery of missing children's souls as stolen by the Pied Piper. No pairings.
1. Frost and Jamie

A/N: Rise of the Guardians belongs to Dreamworks LLC. All use of characters here is strictly for entertainment purposes and not for monetary gain. Apologies for any OOC or typos/grammatical errors missed. I lack a beta. Some liberties taken with the abilities of the Man in the Moon.

It started when Jack returned to the Northern Hemisphere. Perhaps a few residents of Burgess found their windows patterned with frost in the morning, but the game he played just with Jamie. His first morning back, he frosted one window pane and left a "hello again Jamie!" written there.

After several weeks, Jack has even learned to write backwards so the warmth of the bedroom doesn't melt the ice so quickly; he can write from the outside. In the pane next to the one Jack uses, Jamie tapes a notecard with his response to the frame, writing facing outward. From these messages, Jack learns Jamie's birthday is in November - just two weeks away - that school isn't very fun, that he and the other kids are really close. Cupcake and Monty, for example, started hanging out. They both like fantasy and she protects him from bullies while he helps her with math. Jamie learns Jack is adapting well to what Santa Clause and the Toothfairy, Sandman and the Easter Bunny are teaching him about being a Guardian.

Jack sees Jamie outside the messages as well. Walking home from school with his friends, playing during recess, adventuring to Jack's pond on the weekends to explore. Jack watches over them, showing himself only every once in a while. It's not that he's too busy - it's still a little early for snow days and hijacking sleds. He's not sure what it is, but the apprehension is there. He's aware that while they can see him and touch him like he's one of them, he's still not. He's still timeless, ageless Jack rescued dead from the pond outside of town by the Man in the Moon three hundred years before. So small a change to be believed in, to be seen and part of the world of these kids. Huge, for him, to be noticed, to not be invisible and wandering silently in the shadows, unheard when speaking and unnoticed when throwing snowballs. But it's a double-edged sword. The bond is personal now - not just a distant appreciation for these laughing, playful, bright-eyed kids, but a real bond. Between two people - or rather, a kid and and a magic boy protecting them with snow and ice and a heaping dose of fun. And he's worried about what it means for him when they grow up. When they stop being able to see. When they grow old and wither and pass away.

Two weeks before his birthday, Jamie leaves this message in his window: "Will you have time to see us this winter? The guys all miss you. I do too. And my uncle did some research on our town, on our ancestors. There's a legend about the pond he found. When I see you, I'll tell you! See you soon! Jamie."

Jack taps the glass gently with the hook of his staff and the ice curls and fans from it until the pane beside the note is covered in frost. With his finger, he writes backwards, "Of course I will. I miss you all too. This is my Home. I'd like to hear the legend. See you soon! JF."

Jack leaves then, and busies himself in Scandinavia while Sandman spins his dreams, Russia afterward, a short blast on the winter wind to Alaska and Canada, gilding everything in silver-white and watching eagerly for the surprise and awkward recoveries of people noticing a patch of ice here, a light snow there, a surge of winter wind that makes them shiver and flee indoors. After dawn, he spends the day practicing conjuring ice birds, inspired a little by Baby Tooth, as helpers. As a Guardian, he's stronger now - much stronger - now that children believe in him, know his name, blame him for nipped noses turned rosy red upon inspection in the mirror. But they smile and cherish the idea, and his abilities grow. He can protect even more of them if his reach is wider, longer. So he tries with the birds. So far, they're not to him what Baby Tooth and the other fairies are to Toothiana. They're not individual or sentient, but they can go from here to there and back again with small tasks. They can sing and call clouds in for a good snow, graze buildings and fences and cars and anything else with their wingtips and leave a healthy frost in their wake. He can make them a little bigger now, too, but they don't think on their own. When night falls he decides to ask Tooth about it and leaves the Pond to go see Jamie's response.

There isn't one. Jack smiles, taking it to mean the boy was serious about telling him in person. So much for putting a little distance between them. He sticks to Burgess that night, deciding to walk with him to school the next day so he can hear the story about his Pond.

Long after it's time for school, Jamie is nowhere to be found except in his bed, at home, his mother pacing his bedroom frantically and speaking hurriedly on the phone. Through the glass, Jack watches her, confused. Jamie doesn't look sick - he's just lying in bed, sleeping.

"...watch Sophie," Jamie's mother is saying, "No, I don't think that's necessary. I don't know how long I'll be, Danielle, I'm sorry. I know you were looking forward to having Founder's Day off from school, but it's just until I get back from the hospital. Can you make it?"

Looking between Jamie and his mother, Jack is very confused. "Why does he need to go to the hospital? He doesn't look any different at all. He's not even awake, how does she know?" He's seen kids get sick before, and mother's aren't this frantic about it usually. And they don't usually have to make emergency hospital visits because a child is sleeping peacefully in bed.

Creeping into the room while Jamie's mother negotiates pay with the babysitter, Jack steals over and shakes Jamie by the shoulders. "Come on, buddy, wake up. Your mom's freaking out." Earning no response - not even a grumble - Jack shakes him a little harder. "Jamie? You don't really need to go to the hospital, right...?"

The boy is eerily still. Jack takes a step backward, really confused now, and lets Jamie's mother - who has hung up the phone - bend down and pick up her son and walk him out the bedroom door. Jack follows without looking back, but doesn't make it through the door.

"Jack...?"

Turning, Jack faces Jamie, still lying in bed. His eyes are open now, but he looks strange, washed out somehow. "Jamie?" Jack drifts over to his bedside, trying to understand what he's just seen. Trying to understand what he sees now: Jamie's hands rest on the edge of his coverlet, and through them Jack can see the blanket's pattern.

"Do you see me?"

Jack's heart breaks a little. It wasn't so long ago he was asking of Jamie something similar. "Buddy, I've been seeing you this whole time."

Jamie shakes his head. "No, I've been awake this whole time! You thought I was asleep, too. I don't understand. I'm awake!"

Jack sits beside him and puts a hand on his head, hoping it doesn't fall through his face. It rests gently on top of Jamie's hair. Transparent, yes. Insubstantial, not so much. Considerably relieved, Jack grins.

"It sounds like you had the day off today anyway," Jack tells him.

Shaking his head, Jamie withdraws from Jack's hand. "I feel really weird, Jack. Like something really important is missing."

Jack is getting the feeling Jamie didn't see his mother carrying him out of the room. Lacking an explanation for the phenomenon, Jack smiles at him. "I know. We're going to go find out what it is. You and me. Sound like fun?"

Jamie nods. To keep up the illusion, Jack holds out his hand. "Remember how to fly?"

Instead of by Sleigh, Jack arrives at the Toothfairy Palace by Winter Wind, Jamie's hand tight in his own. As usual, the little fairies are bustling and zipping about, bringing teeth in and taking quarters out. One fairy breaks off from the incoming fairies and circle's jack's head, chirping happily. Landing, Jack releases Jamie on a landing and catches Baby Tooth in his hands. "How ya been, Baby Tooth? Getting lots of teeth?"

She chirps an emphatic, excited response, and holds out three for Jack to see. He grins. "Good job," he says. "Is Tooth out in the field, too?"

Baby Tooth puts the teeth away in a little satchel and shakes her head. Gesturing for them to follow, she flutters off around the Palace. Exchanging looks, Jack takes Jamie's hand again and summons the Wind.

Baby Tooth takes them to the Hub, a gazebo-like place where Toothiana gives her fairies instructions on where to go next. She squeaks in surprise when she sees Jack and Jamie, still transparent. The support pillars and lattice around the gazebo are visible through him.

"Jack, what's going on?"

Jack smiles. "You remember Jamie, right?"

"Of course I do." She flutters down to hug the boy and looks back up at Jack. "Something's wrong, though, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Jack said. "Jamie and I are trying to find out what."

"What do you know so far?"

Leaning on his staff, Jack, bites his lip. "That Jamie thought he was awake this morning, but he wasn't. His mother took him to the hospital, and I was going to follow, but he called after me." He slides down the staff to kneel at their height. "Jamie was still there, but he was like this. Have you ever seen anything like it?"

"No, I don't think I have," Toothiana says softly, stroking Jamie's hair gently. "Do you remember anything strange, Jamie?"

The boy nods. "There was music in my dream last night. The same song over and over again. It sounded like a flute was playing it, and other kids were singing it. I really wanted to join in, but it stopped suddenly and I woke up to Abby jumping on me."

"Abby?" Tooth asks.

"The Greyhound," Jack says with a wicked smile, remembering how fond Greyhounds are of rabbits.

Tooth nods. "Music. Music... Oh, I know! Let's check your box!" Fluttering up, she takes Jamie by the hand and leads him toward one of the shining towers, Jack following on the Wind close behind.

Jamie's box is doing something very strange indeed. The flute song he was hearing is playing from it, Ring Around the Rosy, over and over again. Toothiana frowns. "That's very unusual."

Nearby, Jack pulls another box from a shelf a few feet away. "His isn't the only one," he says, letting them both listen. The same instrument, the same tune. They are even synchronized. Toothiana's face drops into a small panic and she scours the shelves, finding several more before putting them all back and dropping down to Jack and Jamie.

"We need to talk to North. He'll know what to do."

The Yetis are still wary of Jack out of habit, but Toothiana has been a Guardian much longer and they trust her judgment easily - for Yetis. And she absolutely will not abandon Jamie, so in he goes.

"Slow down, I want to see this!" Jamie complains, pulled along by Jack. The Guardian looks over his shoulder sympathetically.

"That's what I said my first time here, too. I'd tried for years to break in. Sorry Jamie, but you're not even supposed to be here. Oh, and no telling the others, okay? This is just between you and me."

Toothiana steers them off into North's workshop and the door closes abruptly behind them.

Jamie's eyes widen. "Santa Clause!"

North laughs. "Of course. Have cookie," he says, offering a plateful to the transparent boy. When he realizes he can eat them, they go quickly. While he eats, Jack and Toothiana explain what they know. North paces and strokes his beard.

"The Globe is in good order. You say you heard other children singing?"

Jamie nods.

"Could be..." North hums to himself, pacing and thinking. Suddenly, he turns to Jack and Tooth. "You two! Go scout for information, see if you can learn if other kids have gone missing."

"Kids always go missing," Toothiana says softly.

"You mean, a lot of kids? All at once?" Jack asks.

"Yes! Go, and check back in here around nightfall. I'll look after this one and summon the others."

"Others?" Jamie asks. "You mean the Easter Bunny and the Sandman?"

"The very same," North grins.

"Come on Jack," Toothiana says.

Pausing to ruffle Jamie's hair, Jack looks at North. "Take care of him!"

"You know I will!"


	2. Frost and Piper

A/N: All characters involved, excluding the Pied Piper and Jack O'Lantern, are strictly the property of William Joyce and Dreamworks. Author takes no claim to their characters and pursues this form of entertainment for her own enjoyment and growth as a writer, not for monetary purposes.

"What is this?"

North, Sandy, Bunny, and Jamie all look up from a large platter of cookies and mugs of hot cocoa with candy canes for stirring.

Jack gestures. "What, couldn't help us, kangaroo?"

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of you admitting inadequacy," Bunny shoots back.

"You lazy a-"

"Girls, you're both pretty," Toothiana interjects "Can we focus please? And brush your teeth after you're done with all those, Jamie Bennett."

Momentarily, Jamie freezes mid-chew. Swallows. "Yes ma'am."

Sitting down beside the boy, Jack ruffles his brown hair before reaching for a cookie of his own.

"So, did you find anything?" Bunny asks.

"No missing kids," Jack says between bites. "Not exactly." He gestures to Toothiana so he can shove half a chocolate chip cookie in his mouth. None of them need food; the belief of children sustains them. But cookies are a treat, a rare one for most of them.

"We did find an abnormal influx of children admitted recently to hospitals everywhere, comatose."

"What does that mean?" Bunny asks.

"It means they fell asleep and wouldn't wake up. They're all fine except for that, though I think they've been put on food and liquid sustenance somehow." Jack waves a hand. "I didn't really keep up with all that."

"And we didn't find anymore like Jamie in the bedrooms of kids in the hospital," Toothiana adds. "Not where we looked, anyway."

"And since you said the only reason you didn't join in was because of your dog," Jack continues, smirking at Bunny. "You remember Abby, don't you? The Greyhound?"

"Blow off," Bunny snorts, then looks apologetically at Jamie. "Sorry."

Jamie giggles. "You guys don't get along very well, do you?"

"Not really," Jack answers. "But Bunny's pretty reliable in a pinch. Anyway," he blazes on before Bunny can make something of it, "Jamie woke up before he could join the others, so whatever's happening only happened to him halfway. Ever seen anything like it, anyone? Tooth and I are stumped."

Bunny shrugs, which Jack expected. His instincts are telling him either Sandy or North knows something, but if they don't have information to be useful, they probably won't say anything at all. Of the five of them, those two are eldest.

A sand flute pops up above Sandy's head, and he looks at North, concern lining his face. North nods gravely. "Sandy is right. It is probably her."

Sandy nods solemnly.

"Her?" Bunny asks, speaking for all of them.

North crosses his arms. "The Pied Piper."

"Hold it," Jack interjects. "I thought the Pied Piper was a man?"

"She was a thirteenth century witch," Toothiana says softly. "North, I thought the Plague got her in the Dark Ages."

Jamie frowns. "Why'd they say she was a guy, then?"

"Search me," Bunny says.

"Sometimes this happens," North says, regarding Jamie. "My friends call me North, you call me Santa Clause, others call me Saint Nicholas. In your version of the Pied Piper's story, the piper is a man. Speaking as someone who has met her, I can tell you my version stars a woman."

"In Europe, Jamie," Toothiana says, "it isn't fairies that take children's teeth and replace them with money, it's cute little mice."

"So depending on where you are, the legends and myths have been told differently," Jack says. This is new to him. He's met others like himself - he and Bunny have a solid history of mutual dislike and something of a bond as a result (Jack is starting to think Bunny likes having someone to argue with just for the sake of arguing) - but he's never learned too much about where anyone came from or what the mortal children have been taught about them.

"But doesn't the Pied Piper take the children? They sleepwalk in a long behind him- er, her and totally disappear until ransom is paid? Or is that just my version?" Jamie asks, and Jack watches the others, wanting answers himself.

"That's why this is so mysterious to me," North says, nibbling another cookie in thought. "That is how it is supposed to work."

"Are... are they ghosts now?"

"I don't think so, Jamie," Bunny says kindly. "They're like you now. A spirit, a soul. It's possible for them to go back to their bodies as long as they're still alive. Right, North?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Bunny," North says. "I am sorry, my friends, this defies all previous knowledge I have of Piper."

"So let's go find her and learn some more!" Jack exclaims. Beside him Jamie brightens.

"No," North says.

A small row of Zs appear above Sandy's head disappear in a burst of sand. North nods. "We need to wake the children up."

"I don't know if you've noticed, but that's kind of the problem," Jack says blithely.

"I don't mean their bodies, Jack, I mean their souls. It is likely they do not know what has happened to them."

"They think they're still whole," Toothiana says. "I see."

Jamie nods. "Like I did."

"Except you'll be stayin' here," Bunny says firmly.

"What?" Jamie protests.

Jack puts a hand on Jamie's head. "Easy. I hate to admit it, but Bunny's right. We don't know what we're walking into, but we can protect ourselves pretty easily if we get separated. You, not so much."

"I'm not so sure leaving him here is a good idea," Toothiana says. "He can't defend himself the way we can, but he's already halfway through the process. If the Piper plays again and he gets sucked in, we lose him, too, until we resolve this."

"If Piper plays again, will we be able to stop it anyway?" Bunny asks. "Not to be the rain on your parade, Tooth, but if the kid doesn't even have a choice in the matter, who says we do?"

Jamie slides closer to Jack, looking up at him, worried. Jack gives him a small hug. "We'll protect you as best we can, Jamie, I promise you that."

The boy nods.

Jack looks at the others. "You know, I don't think you're giving him enough credit, Bunny."

"Almost all the other kids in the world have succumbed to this, Jack," Toothiana says gently. "It's unlikely Jamie won't."

Jack grins. "You're forgetting already, Guardians. Every child in the world gave in to Pitch's fear and nightmares except one. You didn't even get nightmares, did you Jamie? You never gave up."

"Well," Jamie says. "I did. Just once."

"Just for a moment, I know. But we fixed that, didn't we?"

The boy brightens. "Yeah, we did."

Jack turns to face him, putting his hands on the boy's transparent shoulders. "I know you're not strong enough to protect yourself physically, Jamie. Not yet. So you have to stay here, with the Yetis, where you're safest. However," Jack continues, cutting off another protest. "I know how strong you are in here," he says, pointing to Jamie's chest over his heart. "And here," he points to Jamie's head. "You believed in us when no one else did. You defended us against Pitch at the height of his strength even though we weren't strong enough to take him out, not even five of us. You figured out how to stop Pitch, and without you there with me I never would have thought of throwing a snowball at his head."

"Heh," Bunny grins. "The icicle's right, kid, you're stronger than I give you credit for."

"He's good at that," Jack says with a grin. Again, Jamie laughs. "So Jamie, it's my turn to believe in you, even if you seem weak right now, because I know you'll fight. I know you won't go down easy. Think you can handle that?"

Jamie hesitates, then nods reluctantly.

"And you better fight hard, Jamie," Jack says. "Because you still have a family legend to tell me, right? And if it's the legend I think it is, I have a surprise for you."

"Really?"

"Yup! So make sure you're here when I get back, got it?"

"Make sure you come back."

"You got it."

"Why are we in this thing if we don't even know where we're going?!"

"Still afraid of the sleigh, Bun-Bun?"

"I told you not to call me that, Jack Frost!"

Jack sniffs. "Everyone knows you're not really in trouble until your middle name is used. You don't scare me."

Toothiana scoots a few steps down toward North. "Where are we going, North?"

"Don't distract him, it makes his driving worse!"

"The last place Piper was seen before she disappeared during the Plague. Poland!"

"She was last seen in Poland?"

"Is this big deal?"

Everyone looks at Jack, who grins, realizing being the youngest had its benefits. "Wasn't Poland the only place in Europe that didn't suffer because of the Plague?"

"A whole country? Avoiding an entire pandemic?" Bunny scoffed. "Where'd you hear that malarky?"

"I follow kids to school sometimes. It's interesting. Rumor has it the Polish bathed regularly and avoided being bitten by contaminated fleas."

"Fleas?" Toothiana asks. "What do fleas have to do with the plague?"

"When fleas run out of animals to bite, like plague-carrying rats from the East, they bite humans. Boom. Plague."

"I never noticed the Polish bathed more," Toothiana says.

"Bathing habits aren't on anyone's list of priorities," Jack says. "Except personal ones. May want to consider that in the future, Bun-Bun."

"Showpony."

"So if you're thinking the Plague took out Piper in Poland, I think you've got your explanation for her not being dead. She, er, did in Rome as the Romans do."

"Heh. Literally."

"What?" Bunny asks.

"Romans," North says. "Famous for scrupulous hygiene, but pagan. The European Christians rejected the notion, I hear, to be contrary."

"I thought it was because bathing was considered luxurious and unnecessary by the humble and pious," Toothiana says.

"Basically, it is same thing. It was silly effort anyway, many popes were just as corrupt as they accused the Roman Empire of being."

Bunny rolls his eyes, giving Jack a look. "So where in Poland do we look, historians?"

"No idea!" North cries joyfully, pulling out his Snowglobe and shaking it to reveal the image of an area in Poland. With a powerful toss, he jettisons it out in front of the sleigh and they are all zapped in.

For three days they split up into single units and combed the countrysides. North was certain Piper wouldn't hide in the cities, it wasn't in her nature. That part of the legend, at least, was dependable. It was the day before Halloween, Jack realized on the third day, and shuddered. Since meeting the spirit of Halloween, the way he was the spirit of frost and snow, Jack had a little less fun at Halloween than he had as a mortal. Most people, except for a few gifted mortals, couldn't see Jack o'Lantern, believing him embodied in the carved and internally lit pumpkins and other gourds named after him. Not that Jack o'Lantern looked much different. There wasn't much to him at all, a scarecrow's hollow body draped in a coat and pants, a lit and carved pumpkin for a head. But it wasn't golden, warm candlelight that lit this Jack's face but a foreboding, unnatural red.

Jack Frost had learned the true meaning of All Saint's Day this way, when the walls between worlds were thin and weak and spirits of those dead and gone returned at will, following Jack o'Lantern's light back to the living world for one night of reminiscing, mischief-making, and inciting fear. The Lantern laughs and guides them along, disappearing at dawn and leaving them wandering aimlessly and without the previous night's heady power. It is only when friends and relatives and descendants come with candles and flowers for graves, with prayers and fond remembrances that they find their way back to sleep.

And when Jack o'Lantern suddenly crosses Jack's path, he's already got a few strong, grotesque spirits in tow. The grinning spirit tilts his head at his icy fellow of the same name. Jack Frost is afraid it will speak, as it can choose any voice of any dead person to utilize as its own, because it doesn't have its own voice. And when it does speak, it's the voice of a small boy.

"Jack Frost, here so soon?"

It is a bit early for Poland in terms of ice and snow, Jack realizes. "I thought I'd see if Madame Harvest has blown all the leaves off the trees here yet."

"She certainly has not! Look at them, such colors of fire! I died in a fire." The Lantern coughs and regains control of the borrowed voice. "I heard you are a Guardian now! What fun! So much power, so much mischief! I liked that about you, Frost-Jack. Mischief, fun, games! But..."

Jack resists the urge to step backwards as the Lantern leaves his party to fly over to him, stopping a foot shy of his face.

"Frost-Jack looks so serious, even from all the way back there? Shall we make it snow early, Frost-Jack? Just once, right under Madame Harvest's nose? Even though it is almost Halloween, I will allow this!"

Jack glimpses the ghosts waiting for the Lantern as the other Jack bobs up and down in front of him, pumpkin-carved eyes and mouth aglow with eerie scarlet. An idea occurs to him, and he follows it. If he plays his cards right, he might find the missing children's souls. And who would know more about a huge gathering of souls in one area than Jack o'Lantern? So Jack scuffs his feet in the leaves carpeting the forest floor, riming their edges in frost. He tips his staff horizontally and holds it behind him in both hands. "I've been feeling so serious for so long, Lantern-Jack, that so small a snowball fight won't help. Thank you though."

Turning, he starts to walk away. The Lantern cuts him off, floating in front of him now and adopting the voice of a young girl this time. "But you must come Jack! It is no good to see you so serious! You are named after me, we are connected! Brothers!"

Jack spares a brief thought for Manny, wondering if he was named after anyone or just given his regular name and called Frost. "But there's only a few of you. Maybe tomorrow."

"Lantern-Jack has started early, Frost-Jack! I have many friends to play with, so come and play with us!" It giggles, and reaches for his hand. "Come, Frost-Jack, so many playmates! We'll have a big snowball fight right under Madame Harvest's nose! The best you've seen in centuries, you watch!"

Jack lets it take his hand. The feeling is chilling - cold, inflexible fingers cracking to wrap around his own. Like a dead man's hand in full rigor. So fast does the Lantern pull him through the forest, the grotesque, maimed ghosts following, that Jack calls the winter wind to keep up. Lantern and the ghosts do not see the errant breeze that leaves Jack instead of propelling him, laden with ice that, once out of sight, forms a small bird with one simple task.

Find the others. North. Tooth. Sandy. Bunny. Bring them to me.

It is fully dark by the time the little ice bird gathers all four together. The last they find is Sandy, who asks the little creature a question in the form of a shape. The bird can perform the same kind of communication, but has no voice and only duplicates what it is shown. Sandy shrugs.

"Must be Jack's," Bunny says, letting the bird land on his finger. "Gotta be. No bird runs that cold."

Toothiana joins him, looking at it in wonder. "I didn't know he was working on something like this."

"He probably misses Baby Tooth," North says. "Little friend, did Jack send you for us?"

Taking flight, the bird flies a circle encompassing all four of them, then flies off north-east.

"Good enough for me! Tooth, make sure it doesn't get too far ahead!"

"Roger!"

Just short of a large clearing, the Lantern stops and Jack drops to the ground at his side, staff leaned against one shoulder. Within the clearing, a bonfire is burning, large and bright. Around it, gray shadows dance, little figures backlit by the flames. Rows and rows of them circling the flames, the first clockwise, the second widdershins, the third clockwise, and so on.

Ring around the rosie~

"So many playmates this year!" The Lantern crows, using the little boy's voice again.

Pocketful of posies~

The grotesque ghosts following them crowd around Jack, eyeing him over his shoulders, smirking grossly with maimed faces.

Ashes, ashes~

"Ashes, ashes!" Sings one voice above those of the missing children's souls.

Then the final verse, changed later by centuries after the Plague it describes, sung in chorus by them all.

"We all fall dead!"

"Lantern," Jack says quietly. "These children aren't dead children. Did you know that?"

"The Pied Piper," the Lantern says in a grown woman's voice. "Says this doesn't matter, that spirit is spirit, no matter if body is living or dead. Do the comatose not dream fantastic things? They drift, they play with Lantern-Jack every Halloween."

Above them, the night is clear, the stars bright and the moon full. Manny, do you see? The souls of everyone you created us to protect are here, right here... somehow...

That was a lot of kids to account for. And only Toothiana had the resources to get them to their proper homes.

Well, that wasn't true, he'd heard the Yetis and fairies and elves and stone eggs had taken the sleeping children all back to their beds that last day in Jack's hometown, while the Guardians themselves swept away.

"Did Pied Piper say it was okay for you to bring friends to play with her children, Lantern-Jack?"

The Lantern tips his face in Jack's direction, and Jack gets the feeling that, of all times, the grin is genuine.

He sighs, ducks out from under the ghosts, and takes to the winter wind, above the bonfire. The Lantern follows, bobbing around him as it speaks. "No good, Frost-Jack. Pied Piper says the Guardians must play, or the children will never go home."

"It was a trap."

"Harsh words!" Cries the Lantern. "It was invitation, Frost-Jack. Have you sent for the others, Guardian?"

Jack bites his lip and ducks his head in false shame. "No. I'm not as strong as they are. I don't have helpers the way they do. And they don't hear the winter wind's words. I'm alone."

"Do not leave now! Children will be so sad!"

"And so will the Pied Piper, I'm sure," Jack mutters.

"She will see you," the Lantern says, taking Jack by the hand and pulling him down toward a throne set up near the bonfire, between two great, old trees. "Lantern-Jack stole the fancy chair from an empty castle. Look how she sits in it!"

Sat in it? Piper wore the thing like a crown sitting in it. Posed in front of her elaborate, old-world bodice was an elaborately carved wooden flute, shiny with age and use. She was a perfect vision of youth and beauty, her hair long and white, shimmering pale gold in the firelight, an iron crown a dark halo. Her gown is a resplendent sapphire, embroidered silver and jewels glimmering in the light.

Jack tips his staff just slightly and sends a powerful, rapid burst of ice in her direction. She counters it laughing, so powerfully it throws him back through the fire and lands him on the other side, coughing and hacking, frozen clothing briefly thawed. Another blast of power crashes through the flames, striking a soul nearby. It vanishes with a scream.

"Come back to me, Jack Frost. I do so dislike injuring my guestlist."

Aided by the wind, Jack hops over the bonfire and stands before her. His whole body is shaking with rage. How long before the others find him? How long before she asks for his staff? How long after that will his power last? He hasn't been without it since before he became a Guardian.

"You came alone. Are you not a Guardian now? Do you not have messengers to communicate with the others?"

"I am a Guardian, but I haven't been one long," Jack says. "I don't have helpers like them."

"Not even a prototype?"

"No."

"Hm. May I examine your Staff, Guardian?"

"Allow me to hold your flute while you do, Pied Piper, else the Staff will freeze it."

The look she gives him is hideous, betraying the centuries of life she has survived.

"There will be no exchange, Jack Frost." She sends another blast over his shoulder, scraping his cheek and ending with another child's scream.

"You really ought to knock that off," Jack growls. "You might make me angry."

"You should play nice, Jack Frost," Piper says, holding out her hand. "And maybe no one else will get hurt." Another blast, and another scream.

Jack loses his temper. Blue eyes paling to ice and burning bright, he points his staff backwards and freezes the bonfire, smoke and all.

"Let's try this again," Jack snarls. "You show me yours, and I'll show you mine."

She looks bored now, snapping her fingers and restoring the flames. "You really are quite minor, aren't you?"

"There's a reason Pitch Black doesn't walk this Earth, Piper."

"You'll get no help from the wee children this time, Jack Frost," Piper laughs. "So weak of you, depending on the tiny children you exist to protect!"

Really, where is everyone? They should have been here by now! Jack is running out of time, and buying it has come at far too heavy a price.

"What are you afraid of then? Just let me hold your flute for you, Pied Piper. Then you can examine this," he flips the staff expertly, "all you like. Just one weakling Guardian is certainly no threat to one of your power."

She stares at him for a long time, then surrenders her flute. Jack takes it and at the same time surrenders his staff. She catches him murmuring to himself.

"What are you saying?"

"Nothing, just talking to the wind. You know. Like I do. I'm the only one that can, you know."

The sound of their voices drowns out the soft chirping of the flute as the wind plucks it out of Jack's hands, tucked behind his back. It carries it quietly, directly behind him, and he hears only the softest shift of logs in the bonfire when it's dropped into the core before the wind is swept up into the smoke.

Piper looks up sharply, clearly as connected to her flute as Jack is to his staff. "Something wrong? Is it not to your liking?"

"Show me the flute!"

Jack steps to the side and sweeps his arms in the direction of the flames.

The Pied Piper screams, and a blast of power picks him up and holds him in the center of the flames, binding him tight and still.

"I'm immortal, Pied Piper!" Jack shouts. He's not sure he believes it; the fire burns worse than the ice ever had when he was mortal.

"You are not invincible, Jack Frost!" Piper roars, voice deep with rage. "It was ice that killed you first, let it be fire that finishes the job! You diabolical twist of nature, you enchanted piece of necrophilia! Burn!"

"You're one to talk! Who ran from the Plague and hid in Poland six hundred years ago? Who's the enchanted piece of necrophilia here, Piper? You, or me, barely half your age and not by choice!"

"Child resurrected by the Moon," Piper hisses. "And for what? Dreams and hope and wonder."

"And Memories and Fun!" Jack shouts back, agony straining his voice. "There are five of us, stupid!"

"Soon to be four!"

"In your dreams!" Jack roars, and collects the last of the energy left to him by the staff. He has no way to direct it, so he just lets it explode and it bursts into heavy snowfall, all around, coating the ground, covering the children and the witch, blasting into the sky and falling again. "How long can you keep this up, old hag?"

"Longer than you!"


	3. Frost and Lantern

A/N: All characters excluding Pied Piper and Jack O'Lantern belong to William Joyce and Dreamworks. Content not intended for anything but entertainment purposes and growth as a writer.

"What was that?"

They all pause along the golden sand trail hovering in the air. It had been Sandy's idea to plant a sand-object on the bird's back, leaving a shimmering trail for them all to follow. Toothiana rises above the trees and looks around. "There! We're headed in the right direction! It's snowing!"

"There are no clouds!" North exclaims. "It must be Jack."

Bunny frowns. "Why would he bother to make it snow? If he wanted us to see him, he already sent the bird."

"We're not going to find out standing around here," Toothiana says, and flutters off along the trail, the other three close behind.

Jack is drifting in and out of consciousness after an indeterminate amount of time. The Piper is speaking, but he can't catch enough of it to shout back at her, even if he had the strength. The fire feels so much closer now, too close, claiming oxygen before he can. Everything hurts, so badly. He's not even sure if he's screaming, or if his teeth are clenched against the pain still, as if his nerves have completely shut down. I'm immortal... Maybe if he could look up and see the Moon, he'd believe that. Maybe if he could feel crisp frost again, feel the snow beneath his feet again, leave traces of ice on trees again. Maybe he'd really believe that.

He doesn't notice when the Pied Piper's head and shoulders tip sharply to the side, her crown flying off her pale head. Doesn't feel it when something hits him hard and fast, knocking him out of the flames and back into comparably cold midnight air.

The first thing he hears is Bunny, and every insult the rabbit knows.

"Glad to see you too," he gasps, surprised that his tongue hasn't been fried out of his mouth.

"He's alive!" Bunny shouts over his shoulder. Toothiana joins him in a shimmer of green and violet. "Move Bunny, I'll get him out of here. Go get her."

"With pleasure."

Carried away by Tooth, Jack manages to speak again. "Is... he mad?"

"Furious. We all are. What were you thinking?"

"I destroyed her flute," Jack manages. "It's in the fire. Guess you could say I wasn't thinking."

"Damn right you weren't," she snaps, laying him down on the ground a safe distance away.

"You should go help the others. She's worse than Pitch."

She shakes her head. "They'll have to finish her off, Jack. Someone needs to look after you. She almost finished you off." Motion out the corner of her eye puts her on alert. "See? Someone's already come after you while you're weak."

Drifting into the small glade they've stopped in, Jack o'Lantern smirks his red smirk, glares his red glare, pumpkin face backlit and dark.

Tooth's wings begin their hum and she drifts upward, prepared to fight, even hungry for it. "You were a part of this, weren't you?"

"It was fun," the Lantern says in a little girl's voice. He drifts forward, and stops dead in the middle of a moonbeam, twitching mid-air. His face drops, and when it lifts again, it's not a red glow illuminating his miniscule, haunting features but a gentle, cool silver-blue one. His head tilts to one side, but his voice is not twisted imitation, but warm and, at least to Jack, as familiar as any home. It was the first voice he'd heard in his Immortal life.

"Toothiana. Please bring him into my Light."

Drifting forward tentatively, Toothiana looks up at the full Moon and gazes long and hard. She makes a decision and goes back for Jack, shifting him gently into the moonlight.

"He'll be protected here, Toothiana. Help the others."

"Thanks Manny," Toothiana whispers, sparing one last glance for the Moon, then one for Jack, the possessed spirit hovering protectively around him, still that luminous blue.

Then she races back to the clearing where the bonfire is, where North, Sandy, and Bunny are fighting the Pied Piper.

The clearing from which she can hear children screaming.

It's a powerful burst the witch unleashes on her charges, shortly before Toothiana bursts back into the clearing. She arrives just in time to hear millions of voices from all over the forest screaming in tandem. As quickly as the blast they go, a chilling silence following, filled only by the silent rage of four Guardians.

With no children around to see what they have to do next, the Guardians only experience temporary relief. Toothiana picks her up by the hair and carries her away from the chair to hang over the bonfire.

"If even one of those children died tonight, Piper, you'll be charcoal by dawn," Toothiana hisses.

The witch begins to laugh. "I am one of the spirits! I have a Name, a Name people once believed in! But I only control the illusion, Toothiana, not the life. Even I am bound by rules!"

"Tooth, put her down! There's no reason to drop her unless the children are dead, and we won't know for a while," Bunny shouts.

"Then get out your globe, North," Tooth shouts. "I'm staying right where I am, witch and all!"

"And who will stoke the fire while we're gone, Tooth?"

Bunny glares at him.

"What? Is practical concern for her right now."

"And what do you think she'll do when I let her go?" Toothiana gives the hair a sharp tug and the Pied Piper shrieks. "If she blasts me, I drop her. She's a hostage! So get moving!"

Before North can argue, a small white bird flies up to Bunny and lands awkwardly on his outstretched paw. "Another one of Jack's birds."

"Or the same one. He can't have that much energy left."

"Unless Manny's restoring it," Tooth says. "I left him in the Moonlight."

The birds little ice-beak opens and a voice drifts out.

"Toothiana, the children are safe. Please put the Piper down."

Snarling, Toothiana shifts away from the fire, but does not release her hair. "Try anything funny and I'll use you to break your fancy chair."

"Tooth, let her go," North says firmly. "We do not act in cold blood."

Letting the Piper's hair fall, Toothiana's wings hum loudly as she speeds away, back in the direction she'd come.

"Tooth!"

"Leave her be, North," Bunny says, exchanging worried looks with Manny. "She saw how bad Jack was. You can't blame her for being upset. Now," he turns to the witch, North and Sandy stepping away from him to fully surround her. "Let's have a little chat, shall we?"

Jack!

Adrift. Cold. It feels much like before, when it was cold and dark. But there is no ice to break through, just dreams carrying him round and round, a carousel of color and movement and shapes and noise.

Jack!

And a voice.

Riding on the carousel ahead of him is a round little man bald for but one curling, thick strand of blond hair, always ahead, always unreachable. Gazing always at his back, Jack realizes that once again, he isn't afraid anymore.

Jack wake up!

That voice is so familiar. It's not Emma's, or his mother's, but it's one he knows well. Who is it?

Who is the man in the white suit?

Jack!

God, she sounds so sad. He tries to follow the sound, and finds himself encased in searing pain, finds a memory of searing flames. To feel pain is to live, isn't that what he was told once? He pushes toward it, embracing it even when he thinks reflex will push him back.

Jack!

I'm right here! He wants to yell it, but only manages to open his eyes, to draw in a gasping breath. He has been breathing all along, right?

Jack?

Maybe not.

Even moving his irises hurts, it seems. "Too...th?"

Agony closes around him, pinching his arms to his sides, brushing stinging skin, dripping salt water onto his seared collar bone.

"Please... It hurts..."

The vice of her well-intended embrace immediately loosens and he exhales in relief. His vision is blurry, but not so much that he can't see where the salt water came from. "Don't cry, huh? Just a rugburn."

"Don't ever do anything on your own like that again, Jack Frost!" She's not yelling, her voice is frighteningly low and soft. "We act as a team. We are Guardians. You are a Guardian, not the Guardian. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it."

"I'm so sorry we didn't find you sooner. I've never seen anyone hurt like this before, not one of us. What do you need?"

It seems stupid. Something human in him says bandages, salves, medicine. Something immortal craves the weight of his staff in his hands, the cool touch of ice and frost. So he tells her. "I probably could use some medicine, but could you get my staff?"

She's gone and back much faster than he can justify mentally. His staff is whole and unburned, and Toothiana places it along his body, folding his hands on top of it just below the curve. With a bright flash, he and it are sealed in ice, still and quiet, fogging a little where the heat of his wounds touches the clear ice.

"Tooth!"

Toothiana looks at the Lantern, still under Manny's control. "Can you leave the Moonbeam?"

"No, Toothiana. He will be safe."

Rising, she flies over to guide the others over to where Jack rests, healing within the element in which he was given new life. Moonlit, frozen water.

"Is he all right?" Bunny asks as they arrive, eyeing the ice-coated Guardian surreptitiously.

"Manny can reach him here, and he has the staff. If he's not all right now, he won't be," North says. "Now, we wait."


End file.
